Subscribe to ForumIAS

CSE 2021: Plan / Strategy / Daily Routine

Today's Minimum Program:

- S&T Questions 

- Polity Questions

- Economy Questions

UPDATE: All Done.

4.1k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- Modern Questions 

- A/M/A&C Questions

- E+G Questions (~ 40%)

UPDATE 1: Revised E+G Target.

UPDATE 2: All Done.


3.9k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- E+G Questions (~ 60%)

- FL Notes (~ 3)

UPDATE: All Done.

3.7k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- FL Notes (~ 5)

UPDATE: All Done.

4.2k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- FL Notes (~ 3)

- ML (Chapter 1 - 20)

UPDATE: All Done.

4.3k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- S&T Notes

- IR Notes

- ML 1 (Till Chapter 41)

- ML 2 (Chapter 42 - Chapter 53)

UPDATE: All Done.

3.5k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- Finish ML

- E1/E2/E3 

UPDATE: All Done.

3.6k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- Polity Notes

- Economy Notes

- EF Notes

- QR Notes

- B/ES Notes

UPDATE: All Done.

4.1k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- Geo 1/2

- A&C 1/2

- US Notes

UPDATE: All Done.

3.3k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NS Notes

- IT Notes

UPDATE: All Done.

3.7k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- A&M Notes

UPDATE 1: Kind of a break day today. Too much Prelims Exhaustion :P

UPDATE 2: All Done.

3.3k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- MI Notes 1/2

UPDATE: All Done.

4k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- PQ + Notes

UPDATE: All Done.

4.3k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NP Notes 1/2/3

UPDATE: All Done. 

4.3k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NP Notes 4/5/6

UPDATE: All Done.

4.9k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NP Notes 7/8/9

UPDATE: All Done.

3.7k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NP Notes 10/11/12

UPDATE: All Done.

3.7k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NP Notes 13/14

UPDATE 1: Reduced Target ~ removed NP 15.

UPDATE 2: All Done.

4.3k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- NP Notes 15/16

- Finish Backlog

REMARK: With this, I finish my 1st layer of Prelims Notes :D

UPDATE: All Done.

4.2k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- PQN 1/2/3/4

UPDATE: All Done.

4.2k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- CSAT 

- VA 2/3 

- Plan LM

UPDATE: All Done.

3.9k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- E + G: NP/WLS

- Polity: Tables

- MH: Acts

- Indices 

UPDATE: All Done.

4.4k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- E + G: Ramsar

- A/M/C: IVC + Crafts

- PT365 Extended

UPDATE 1: Removed "Acts". Removed MH. Added PT365 Extended.

UPDATE 2: All Done.

3.9k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- MH: Commissions

- E+G: Acts/Conventions

- A/M/C: Vijayanagar

UPDATE: All Cancelled. It's a waiting game now, for final result!

3.9k views

Today's Minimum Program:

- Read Through ~ V-OT

UPDATE: All Done.

3.7k views

I think @Arrokoth has summed it up perfectly well! Most of us were going through the same emotions last year. The same anxiety and stress. 

At that time, people would be motivating each other in the T-10 days. That thread was amazing (Prelims 2020). I do recommend going through @Patootie 's posts of that time. He would always come up with the motivation we needed in the last 10 days, and a song.

But I think we have @nerdfighter for our song recommendations :)

3.5k views

I think for a community that has given us so much, a formal leaving is definitely in order. And@Arrokoth (as always) has managed to sum it up perfectly :D

Till 6th November, please feel free to ask any doubts. I believe this thread is only for the Daily Targets or so. So you can post your questions in the relevant thread and tag us. I also apologize to those, who I couldn't reply to in the last few days. 

Also I wanted to share my 2020 Progress, and this is the apt thread for that. I hope it's seen in a positive/motivating manner.

Tagging@whatonly if she's free to help us.

3.2k views

Also, a genuine request. Instead of sending mails with questions, please post them publicly. That ways:

1) All 3 of us, can try and build up on a strategy in a Forum thread.

2) I do not have to repeat the same thing every time and can address it once in a very holistic manner.

Thank You :)

3.1k views

Q1: For the 2020 cycle it was something like:
June 2019 to January 2020 was Mains Preparation.
January 2020 to May 2020 was Prelims Prep. Then exam got postponed.
So remaining May and June ~ Maths/GS Mains Prep.
Then as per cycle essentially.

Overall timeline of entire prep would be slightly difficult to summarize.

Q2: For 2020 Cycle:
Prelims ~ 200+ Mocks
Mains ~ around 10-12 before Prelims + 3 b/w Pre and Mains (Note ~ these were tests given in TEST MODE)
Interview ~ 20+ Mocks
Essay ~ 5-6 Essays, half of which were b/w Pre and Mains

Q3: Ideally it should be a Feedback Loop something like this:

- Revise Notes

- Give Test/Brainstorm on Questions

- Understand Mistakes/Errors

- Add Content to Notes


Q4: For Prelims, I revised through Tests. I remember how in 2020 we had a discussion on "Active Recall" in Forum. That's the idea basically. I would give a test, mark mistakes + add these to my notes, revise notes and keep giving more and more tests.

For Mains:

- Cover Optional extensively. 

- Brainstorm a lot of questions.

- Practice answer writing.

- Revise notes ~ 7-8 times or even more. Unlike Prelims where subconscious knowledge can help, in Mains you must have knowledge in a much more say "active form". This calls for more revisions.


Q5: Can do either. At the end it's about having 1-pager notes on important issues. To each his own.


Q6: Since I have a slightly low score, I'll instead try and give mistakes that can be avoided:

- Don't make essay look like a long GS answer.

- Essay should not be a "patchwork" of different dimensions. By this I mean to say, continuity and smoothness in Essay add a lot to the reading experience for the Examiner.

3.7k views
Q1: Maybe Arrokoth can answer this better. I think it's the general idea of content enrichment ~ better examples or case studies or best practices. Further, with more brainstorming, you'll be able to come up with better points.

Q2: Case Studies are generally very mechanical, and there's not much of a problem if it stays this way.
Broadly,
- Stakeholder Identification
- Ethical Dilemmas
- Examples

Writing Manner,
- Use of clear subheadings
- Use of diagrams/"clouds"/"pentagons"
- Use of arrows

Q3: Difficult to say. But my guess:

- As long as diagrams are being used to enrich answers/explain better, I see no issue.

- If the examiner feels, diagrams are being used as "space fillers", then it might be an issue.

Anyways, it's difficult to actually put "too many" diagrams on Final Day. Also I read somewhere that one of the top rankers this time used 17 diagrams in GS 1.@Arrokoth Can you confirm/add to this pls?

3.7k views

Q1: Normally October can be used for quickly wrapping up the syllabus. Give maybe 10 days more in November. But post that the focus should be more on Practicing ~ Answer Writing + Brainstorming.

Q2: Your attitude in these 3 months should be that ~ it's a race against time. And when you have so little time, there's no time to be anxious. Also like with other exams, you're here to beat the competition, not the exam.

Q3: I would suggest you do Brainstorming a lot. The same "active recall" idea I mentioned in a post before. That ways you'd force your brain to come up with more and more points in less and less time. Along with this exercise keep revising your notes. Essentially,

To Avoid Blankness = Brainstorming + Revision

Q4: Practice using rigorous time controls at home, so that it is a smooth ride in exam. I started with 7 min/11 min for 10/15 M respectively. Gradually brought it down to somewhere near 6 min/10 min. At times I would write answers in 5.5/9.5 min too. This helps a lot. HOWEVER PLEASE MAKE SURE to adjust your bio-clock back to the actual timings closer to the exam.

3.6k views

TLDR:More or less what you pointed out. Practice more and more case studies.
I just wrote the detailed version of that :)

Detailed Version
That is what I meant with the "mechanical" aspect actually:
I remember telling a friend, how Ethics is like Maths. Once we are done with the theory, the learning should happen through practice. To some extent this is true for all GS, but much more so in Ethics.

For Ethics in General (including the case studies portion)
Step 1: I would read notes.

Step 2A: I used the following material to brainstorm:

- Vision Topper Copies

- Forum Topper Copies

- Lukmaan Topper Copies

- MGP Tests (unused ones)

- AWFG Tests

- Vision Tests (unused ones)

Step 2B: Wrote answers in:

- MGP Tests (NON-TEST MODE)

- Vision Tests (NON-TEST MODE)

Step 2A and 2B essentially went parallelly.

Step 3: Modify notes. This would mean:

- Add Examples/Ideas or whatever you can find.

- Identify Generic Markers/Dilemmas, as you rightly pointed out

- Add Diagrams, if need be.

3.5k views

Q1: I revised my notes ~ 2 layers (1 layer for some topics). These are mostly just the important IMS questions, either from their notes or test series. After that focused on practicing more and more:

- Did IMS 2020 TS in Practice Mode (only 2 tests in TEST MODE)

- Did IMS 2019 + 2018 TS in Practice Mode.

- Did Shankar 2020 TS + SuccessClap TS for Practice.

- Did PYQ 2011 to 2020 in Practice Mode 

- Any other Question Bank/Source

Revised the notes made on the basis of above.

Also revised micro notes (which are formulas + some tricks). See Kanishak Sir's Micro Notes for reference.

Q2: If you haven't done either before. I think do the PYQs from 2011 to 2020. Then move to IMS test series. But if you have done till 2011, then go for Test Series instead of going beyond 2011. This is keeping in mind the paucity of time.

3.5k views
@crypto7 It came at the cost of basic books + the extension due to COVID gave me a lot of time. Some days I did 2 mocks/day. Later on it came down to either only 1 mock/day or {1 mock + 1 SFG}/day.

For people who are doing basic books and assuming no extension, 70-80 is already a high enough number!
3.5k views
@Newton981 What@Arrokoth has suggested is generally considered a very reliable strategy. 
What I did:
- Read newspaper throughout the year.
- Used a special initiative of Insights that year I-CAN.
- The major addition however came through brainstorming/reading of many mock tests.

Major plus point: Less time spent.
Unfortunately this strategy had a drawback: CA could not be covered so extensively. And if you see, this is actually reflected in my GS 3 score. So it may be a better idea to follow what Arrokoth did.


3.4k views
Q1: In addition to what@Arrokoth is saying, a good way to know, what to focus is through answer writing. When you write an answer, do you have sufficient content BUT can't write in time (which means lacking in revision), or do you quickly jot down known points and then struggle to generate more (which means lacking in content).

Q2: In addition:
- Topper Copies ~ Vision/Forum/Lukmaan/GS Score
- AWFG/Vision/MGP Tests
- Infographics (for any topic instead of google search result, go to images directly. Many organizations put content in an infographic format better).

Q3: Same as Arrokoth, more or less.

Q4: Pointed out in a previous post. There are some videos on YT too if you want to see (DKT/IAS Baba/Forum IAS are some decent ones, which can be seen).


3.4k views

More of less what Arrokoth said. See my idea is to cover as many test series as possible. The only difference is some tests will be given in TEST MODE (proper 3 hour format), some in answer writing mode (write 3-4 answers a day and submit copy for correction) and remaining in Brainstorming Mode (for practicing points generation + recollection and content addition).

Brainstorming Process:

- See a Question. Give yourself few minutes to form a broad outline of dimensions. Think of specific points + case studies + examples + best practices etc. MENTALLY form an answer.

- Compare with with either the Topper Copy or the Solutions given by coaching, as is the case.

- Add relevant material (whatever you feel is important) to your notes. And revise these notes. Then repeat the process. Essentially this is the process.

Basically, REPEAT {Revise - Practice - Modify Notes}


@Asmita_101 Broadly you'll have to focus on 2 things:

- Collection of more content for such issues and topics where you do not have anything.

- Practicing forming answers, so that you can atleast write some "generic points" in such questions.


6.3k views

The time b/w Pre and Mains in the context of Optional, was spent practicing Maths problems and not learning any new theory. Micro notes were already prepared, and if not can be easily done so in few days (at max). 

Since you're not so confident, I think you may need to do 1-2 Layers of Syllabus ALONGSIDE problem solving. 1 Layer of Syllabus MAY BE substituted with an easier test series, if you find that approach more comfortable. 

@Prisonmike Set a hard date for completing the syllabus. Try to wrap it up quickly, without going into each and every possibility of content enrichment. That can come later on. Also note what @Arrokoth said.
Essentially,
- Finish Syllabus (say by 10th Nov)
- Start Revising Notes (multiple layers)
- Do Brainstorming + Answer Writing
- Modify Notes (based on above)

@sator A general anxiety is very common. Don't worry :)
I had fortunately given decent number of optional tests and GS tests BEFORE PRELIMS. So that did add to the confidence. 

@chamomile Ideally you do the relatively more important questions and NOT EVERY QUESTION. That would be very time consuming. I did a lot of tests in Practice Mode. Which meant that I did all the 8 questions (using timer at times, but not in a 3 hr slot), and that gave me a lot of practice. So you can try that. 

Also do refer to one of my earlier posts, where I listed down some Maths Sources and all.

@Imomf Each subsequent revision takes less and less time. You start "flipping pages" as Neyawn sir once said. You keep highlighting important things each time. We try to prioritize, for example one cannot read a 500 page book on A&C for Mains multiple times. 

Balancing would depend on your optional a lot. Use Tests to benchmark your comfort in GS/Optional. And keep changing the time allocation ratio (based on the tests) every week/10 days.


5.6k views

@sator My advice regarding newspaper: Skip the backlog. Use a coaching compilation to get up-to date with major events. And henceforth, read newspaper regularly.


@sstarrr 

Q1: Everyone has a different strategy. And you can see this in my and Arrokoth's Case. He decided to go for very little tests and more of base material. I went for "TESTS, TESTS and MORE TESTS" type approach :D

At the end of the day, it all comes down to "reading more content, more number of times". And whether you do it by reading new material or solving more tests is entirely your choice.


Q2: I'll avoid answering this, as my answer would be biased.


Q3: I joined SFG multiple times. In short, extremely helpful. It's however to SUPPLEMENT other test series and NOT SUBSTITUTE because of the basic nature of questions asked.


Q4: Maybe try practicing more philosophical themes. Practice a broad structure, instead of writing the full essay. And do this for multiple Essay Topics. Try reading some Topper Copies too. Maybe that will help.


@Indian_Human If time is less, "delegate" the responsibility of PROBLEM SELECTION to coachings. If you still feel underconfident in a topic, then you can go for basic books. But within these 3 months, it can be avoided. As it becomes difficult to identify the stopping point in a book.


@sjerngal I mean the LEARNING PORTION and BROAD TOPICS must have been covered. That is to say, one should not be joining a course or, say start a new book on World History after 10th November. Also everyone has their own strategy, and if you feel reading a new book is crucial (even in December), please go for it. 


5k views

@Bodhisattva 

TLDR:You're completely on point. Revise more, to write more factually supported relevant points :)

The IDEAL target would ofcourse be 12-13 points substantiated with facts/examples/case studies. But that's not practical. With more practice and revision, you'll move towards specific relevant points. We would still have relevant points (without facts) and generic points. But the number will be lesser.


For Maths People@Celeborn @MikeWozniak @Archand @Master @Infinitybeyondinfinity and others:

Do visit the Telegram Channels of - Vinayak Narwade and Utkarsh Kumar. A lot of helpful content, along with strategy guidance is there. And they are also trying to personally answer doubts whenever possible.

4.5k views

It was an amazing experience here. Forum has truly been a very helpful community.

Best of Luck to everyone :)


7.1k views
Write your comment…